Northern Ireland Office

Japan Tobacco: Ballymena

Lord Empey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to support the designation of the JTI Gallaher factory site and surrounding area in Ballymena, County Antrim as an Enterprise Zone with enhanced capital allowances, following the company’s decision to cease operations.

Baroness Randerson: The economic pact, Building a Prosperous and United Community, set out that the Government would be willing to consider designating sites within Northern Ireland as locations with access to enhanced capital allowances should the Executive propose them and subject to affordability.

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Randerson on 24 February (HL4928) concerning the "on the runs", on what date, how and by whom loyalists were notified of the scheme; and if they were not notified, how they were expected to take part in the process.

Baroness Randerson: Chapter 8 of the Hallett Report sets out the extent of public knowledge of the administrative scheme, and Appendix 9 provides a selection of the most pertinent references to the administrative scheme in the public domain.

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty’s Government on what date the report of the Hallett review into the "on the runs" scheme was made public; and on what date the scheme started.

Baroness Randerson: The Hallett Report was published on 17 July 2014. Chapter 4 of the Hallett Report describes the evolution of the administrative scheme.

Department for Education

Private Education: Vetting

Lord Lexden: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they are making to ensure that independent schools are in a position to comply with their statutory responsibilities to check that staff are not prohibited from involvement in the management of an independent school.

Lord Nash: The Department for Education is in discussion with the Disclosure and Barring Service about ways in which schools can do this with the minimum additional burden, and it is hoped that a process will be in place soon. At present no barring directions have been made under the regulations made in 2014 under section 128 of the Education and Skills Act 2008.

Private Education: Vetting

Lord Lexden: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that independent schools are not found to be in breach of statutory regulations as a result of the introduction of retrospective prohibition checks on teaching staff.

Lord Nash: From 5 January 2015, the independent school standards require that schools check both existing and new teaching staff to determine whether a prohibition order or interim prohibition made by the Secretary of State exists for any member of their teaching staff.  The checks are only retrospective in the sense that schools must confirm that existing staff, as well as new appointments, are not subject to a prohibition order. The prohibition order regime began in April 2012, and the standard does not distinguish between staff appointed before or after 5 January 2015, so existing staff should be checked too. We believe that this is entirely justified. The teacher standards which form the basis of the prohibition regime apply to independent schools, and it would be invidious if a school was able to continue employing a prohibited member of staff simply because he or she was appointed before 2015. When a school is inspected, it should be able to demonstrate that it has either completed these checks (which can be done through the National College’s Easy Access system) or is well on the way to completion. If a school cannot do so, regulatory action is likely to follow.

Department for Work and Pensions

Personal Independence Payment

Baroness King of Bow: To ask Her Majesty’s Government in relation to how many of the 441,900 Personal Independence Payment claims cleared by the Department of Work and Pensions between April 2013 and December 2014 an application for mandatory reconsideration was made; of those, how many initial decisions were overturned; of those in which mandatory reconsideration was unsuccessful how many appeals to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal were made; and of those how many appeals were successful.

Lord Freud: The information requested on mandatory reconsiderations is not currently available. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity. We intend to publish official statistics on mandatory reconsideration relating to Personal Independence Payment when they are ready. The release of information will be pre-announced in line with United Kingdom Statistics Authority release protocols. Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics on appeals to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal published in December 2014 showed that between July and September 2014 there were 796 Personal Independence Payment appeals cleared at Hearing, of which 339 (43%) were revised in the appellant’s favour. The MoJ statistics are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2014

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Manure

Baroness Tonge: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the purposes of the European Union Directive on the nitrogen content of manure used in agriculture.

Lord De Mauley: European Directive 91/676/EEC seeks to protect water from pollution by nitrates from agricultural sources. Some types of manure contain up to 30kg of nitrogen per tonne of manure. Nitrogen from manure can leach from soil in the form of nitrates and can pollute our water bodies, affecting the quality of our drinking water. Agriculture accounts for 50-60% of nitrate pollution in our waters. We therefore believe that it is important that it is controlled and that the objective of the European Directive in restricting the land application of manure is sound. However, we recognise that such restrictions can affect farm productivity and competitiveness. While the Directive gives a steer to Member States over the types of measure to be adopted, it does allow a certain amount of discretion over the exact nature of the rules. We have therefore adopted rules that take account of agricultural practices in this country and are as cost effective as possible, supporting agriculture as well as protecting the environment. In the longer term, we believe nitrate pollution would be better managed through the more integrated approach to water pollution adopted in the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC).

Department for Communities and Local Government

Housing Ombudsman Service

Baroness King of Bow: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many complaints the Housing Ombudsman Service has dealt with in each of the past four years; and how many of those were upheld or refused in each year.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: It has been a number years since the Housing Ombudsman Service had a system where complaints where upheld or refused. The terms of reference for the Housing Ombudsman Service were changed on the 1 April 2013 to reflect the Localism Act 2011 and in preparation for this the Housing Ombudsman Service changed the dispute handling process, which now focuses on local and early resolution.The table below shows the data from 2011 to the 31 March 2013, categorised as follows:  20112012January to March 2013Number of Complaints Received5,7396,7571,675Number of Complaints Investigated Formally64157777Maladministration14712310No Maladministration37131644The table below shows the data from 1 April 2013 to December 2014, categorised as follows:  April to December 20132014Cases Received4,6197,688Cases Locally Resolved4,3957,604Of the Cases Locally Resolved, number of complaints resolved locally5,4298,017Cases Formally Resolved22484Of the Cases Formally Resolved, number of complaints resolved locally23179Of the Cases Formally Resolved, number of complaints resolved formally21149Of the Cases Formally Resolved, where the complaint was resolved at a formal level, the number of complaints that were maladministration11921Of the Cases Formally Resolved, where the complaint was resolved at a formal level, the number of complaints that were no maladministration9125

Judaism

Baroness Tonge: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 10 February (HL4418), whether they intend to ask Jewish faith leaders in the United Kingdom to make clear the ideals of Judaism in respect of religious extremism.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: Her Majesty's Government expects all faiths' leaders to robustly challenge extremism in all its forms, wherever they find it.

Non-domestic Rates

Lord Tope: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many businesses have received assistance through the small business rate relief scheme.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: Approximately 600,000 businesses are benefitting from Small Business Rate Relief with approximately 400,000 paying no rates at all.   Measures in the Localism Act made it easier for small firms to claim the business rate relief to which they are entitled. We announced at the 2014 Autumn Statement an extra £650 million of support for 2015-16 business rates bills in England, bringing the total support from 2013 and 2014 Autumn Statement measures to £1.4 billion in 2015-16. That includes amongst other things:   · the doubling Small Business Rate Relief for a further year (2015-16); increasing the temporary discount for shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000 from £1,000 to £1,500 for 2015-16; We have also given authorities powers to grant their own local discounts and we now fund 50% of any local discount granted. We also announced at Autumn Statement that we will review the future structure of business rates. The review will report by Budget 2016.

Planning Permission

Lord Tope: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they expect to make betting shops and payday loan shops into a separate planning use class; and if so, when.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: We have consulted on a range of planning measures to support our high streets, including requiring a planning application for the change of use to a betting shop or pay day loan shop. An announcement on the outcome of the Technical consultation on planning will be made in due course.

HM Treasury

Taxation: Domicil

Lord Myners: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many taxpayers designated as non-domiciled in the United Kingdom owe that status to inheritance as a result of a parent or grandparent having been born outside the United Kingdom; and whether they have estimated the value of the United Kingdom tax forgone by that category of non-domiciled persons.

Lord Deighton: The information requested is not available.

Taxation: Domicil

Lord Myners: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider allowing non-domicile tax status to pass through maternal inheritance rather than paternal inheritance alone or whether they will consider discontinuing inheritance as a qualifying condition for non-domicile tax status.

Lord Deighton: Domicile is a question of common law rather than tax law. In England domicile passes through the paternal line where parents are married. Where the parents are not married, domicile passes through the maternal line.   The Government has no current plans to change the rules on domicile as they apply for tax purposes but the Chancellor keeps all taxes under review to a Budget timetable.

Loans: Ukraine

The Earl of Sandwich: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Deighton on 17 February (HL4697), whether United Kingdom government ministers have been involved in financial negotiations (1) between the government of Ukraine and the European Union, and (2) between the government of Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund; and, if so, what assessment they have made of the package of financial support offered to Ukraine to date.

Lord Deighton: The Ukrainian authorities have been in direct negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to agree a new package for financial assistance. The IMF will present its proposals for financial assistance for Ukraine to its Executive Board in the coming weeks, which the Government will consider as part of the normal process of decision-making on IMF lending.  As I noted in my Written Answer to HL4697, the Government strongly supports providing financial assistance to Ukraine from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, accompanied by appropriate policy conditionality.

Loans

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance they have given to the Bank of England in bringing forward curbs on leveraged lending.

Lord Deighton: On 26 November 2013, the Chancellor requested that the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) undertake a review of the leverage ratio and its role in the regulatory framework.   Treasury officials were consulted on the terms of reference for the review. The terms of reference were made publicly available on the Bank of England’s website.   On 31 October 2014, following almost a year of work and extensive consultation with stakeholders, the FPC published its response, the Review of the leverage ratio. The Review recommended that the FPC be given new powers of direction over the leverage ratio framework for the UK banking sector.   The Government has brought forward a statutory instrument to grant the FPC these powers.

Banks: Finance

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask Her Majesty’s Government at what level the average leverage ratio becomes of concern to Ministers; and whether they use the 6.2 average in the first quarter of 2007 as a benchmark for risk in the banking sector.

Lord Deighton: The Government is bringing forward secondary legislation to grant the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) of the independent Bank of England new powers of direction with regards to a leverage ratio framework.   Macro-prudential decisions must be insulated from political concerns, which is why the FPC has responsibility for macro-prudential regulation. It is for the FPC to decide what the appropriate calibration of its leverage ratio framework is.

Child Trust Fund

Lord Naseby: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they expect to issue the detailed guidance to parents and guardians concerning the transfer of Child Trust Fund Accounts to Junior ISAs.

Lord Deighton: The Government is currently legislating to permit the transfer of funds from a Child Trust Fund to a Junior ISA from 6 April. Parents and guardians will be able to access information concerning transfers at GOV.UK, as well as from account providers and consumer advice websites and organisations in due course.

Budgets: Scotland

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of current proposals for further devolution to Scotland, what parts of the budget statement they will regard as being exclusively of Scottish interest.

Lord Deighton: The Budget is relevant to the whole of the United Kingdom. Specific policy announcements in the Budget may be limited in their application in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, if they relate to policy responsibilities which have been devolved.   The next Budget will be presented to Parliament on Wednesday the 18th of March.

Inheritance Tax

Lord Campbell-Savours: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will list all the exemptions from inheritance tax.

Lord Deighton: A full list of all inheritance tax reliefs and exemptions was published by the Office of Tax Simplification as part of their review into tax reliefs[1].   The list is as follows:   Relief/exemption titleA&M trusts, Bereaved Minor Trusts, 18-25 Trusts, Pre-78 Protective Trusts, Pre-81 Disabled Trusts and Employee Benefit TrustsAcceptance in LieuAgricultural property reliefAllowance for other tax liabilitiesAlternatively secured pension funds - deferral of chargeAnnual exempt amount (£3,000)Armed forces - death in serviceArmed forces - medals and decorations for gallantry or valourBusiness property reliefCash options under approved annuity schemesChanges to the deceased's estateCharge on participators in close companiesChevening Estate & Apsley HouseCo-morientes (simultaneous deaths)Compensation paid to Nazi victimsConditional exemptionConditional exemption and relevant property trustsCorporation soleDispositions allowable for income taxDispositions for benefit of employeesDispositions for maintenance of familyDispositions in respect of pension benefitsDispositions in respect of pensionsDispositions not intended to provide gratuitous benefitDouble charges reliefDouble taxation agreementsEmployee-ownership trustsEstate duty on gifts to the nationEstate duty transitionalExcluded propertyExclusion of benefit reserved by donorExpenses occurred abroadFailed PETs gifted for national purposesFall in value relief for transfers within 7 years of deathForeign armed forces pay and moveable propertyForeign currency accountsForeign-owned works of artFuneral expensesGifts for national purposesGifts of land to housing associationsGifts on marriage and civil partnershipGifts to charitiesGifts to political partiesGovernment savings of persons domiciled in the Channel Islands or the Isle of ManGovernment securities owned by non-United Kingdom domiciled personsGrant of agricultural tenancyHeritage maintenance fundsLand in habitat schemesLeftover alternatively secured pension funds paid to charityLife tenant becoming entitled to settled propertyLloyd’s premium trustsLoss on sale relief (buildings)Loss on sale relief (shares)Newspaper and employee trustsNil rate band for chargeable transfers not exceeding the threshold (£325,000)No gratuitous benefit and grants of agricultural tenancy (temporary charitable trusts)Normal gifts out of incomeOpen ended investment companies and authorised unit trustsOverseas pensionsPayment of incomePayment of income (temporary charitable trusts)Pension schemesPotentially exempt transfersPrivate treaty salesProperty held on trust for bereaved minors or person aged 18-25Quick succession reliefReduced rate of tax for relevant property chargesReduced rate of tax for temporary charitable trusts chargesRegistered pension schemes trust chargesReversionary interestsReverter to settlorReverter to settlor's spouseScottish agricultural leasesSmall gifts exemptionSpouse / civil partner reliefTaper reliefTrade or professional compensation fundsTransfer to employee trustsTransferable nil rate bandTrust property becomes excluded propertyTrust property distributed in first quarter of the yearTrustees costs and expensesTrustees costs and expenses (temporary charitable trusts)Trustees costs, payment of income, no gratuitous benefit, grants of agricultural tenancy and reduced rate of charge for A&M trusts, Bereaved Minor Trusts, 18-25 Trusts, Newspaper and Employee Trusts, Pre'78 Protective Trusts & Pre 81 Disabled TrustsTrusts with vulnerable beneficiaries - annual limitUnilateral double taxation reliefVoidable transfersWaiver of dividendsWaiver of remunerationWoodland relief  [1] The OTS report and full list of reliefs, allowances and exemptions is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-reliefs-review

Inheritance Tax

Lord Campbell-Savours: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will list all classes of assets which are subject to relief from inheritance tax.

Lord Deighton: The classes of assets which qualify for inheritance tax reliefs are as follows:   For business relief – a business or interest in a business,shares in an unlisted company,shares controlling more than 50% of the voting rights in a listed company,land, buildings or machinery owned by the deceased and used in a business they were a partner in or controlled,land, buildings or machinery used in the business and held in a trust that it has the right to benefit from. For agricultural relief – land or pasture that is used to grow crops or to rear animals,growing crops,stud farms for breeding and raising horses and grazing,trees that are planted and harvested at least every 10 years,land not currently being farmed under the Habitat Scheme or a crop rotation scheme,the value of milk quota associated with the land,some agricultural shares and securities,farm buildings, farm cottages and farmhouses. For woodlands relief – the value of timber in a woodland Further details about inheritance tax reliefs can be found on the Gov.uk website.[1][1] https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/inheritance-tax-reliefs

Inheritance Tax

Lord Campbell-Savours: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the effect on receipts to the Exchequer of the abolition of inheritance tax and the taxing of recipients of inherited wealth at the recipients' marginal rate of tax.

Lord Deighton: The information requested is not available.

Cabinet Office

Lords Spiritual (Women) Bill

Lord Trefgarne: To ask Her Majesty’s Government on what basis they consider that the provisions of the Lords Spiritual (Women) Bill comply with the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights, given the impact of the bill on male diocesan bishops.

Lord Faulks: The Bill is fully compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights. Both Strasbourg and domestic case law has established that the right to participate in the work of the House of Lords does not engage the Articles of the Convention.